


Splendid Failure

by Karios



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Camping, Friendship, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Light Angst, Platonic Cuddling, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23705080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karios/pseuds/Karios
Summary: A night under the stars during a mission makes for a sullen Time Team.
Relationships: Rufus Carlin & Wyatt Logan & Lucy Preston
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Gen Freeform Exchange2020





	Splendid Failure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



It was late afternoon in Colonial Virginia on July 28th 1775, and this mission was going terribly. With under a year to go until the original Independence day, Emma’s potential targets could be almost anyone, or so it seemed to Wyatt. 

To make matters worse, Wyatt, Lucy, and Rufus were stuck camping. Failing the times when they couldn't complete the mission and get back to the Lifeboat on the same day they'd arrived, they usually got a room of some kind, somewhere. But a firefight with a pair of Emma's lackeys had driven them further and further away from town and the Lifeboat. 

Scoring another point in the Rittenhouse win column, the only reason their opposition had gotten away was because Wyatt had lost his footing and fallen backwards into a muddy stream. He’d bruised little more than his ego, but as a surprisingly strong current swept him further downstream, Lucy and Rufus were forced to turn their attention to fishing him back out. 

“We’ve got you, we’ve got you,” Lucy soothed. She and Rufus each managed to get a good grip on one of Wyatt’s arms and heaved. Once his torso was free of the water, Wyatt was able to help with their efforts. Together they tugged as he clawed his way up onto the bank.

Jelly-armed, Lucy and Rufus sat down next to him, all three of them taking a moment to regroup. Once Wyatt had gotten his breath back, he blew it out again in a frustrated sigh. “No point in going after them now.”

“At least you're okay,” Lucy put in, with a slightly strained smile.

“For all the good that does us,” Wyatt griped, hauling himself to his feet. It wasn't as though he’d been much of an asset so far today.

“Wyatt, this wasn’t your fault. That could have been any of us,” Lucy chided.

He shook off her forgiveness and changed the subject. “Let's get a fire started. If we hurry, we can get our clothes rinsed off and dried before nightfall, so we don't choke each other with swamp smell while we sleep.”

“Here? On the ground? Do we have other options?” Rufus asked. 

While Wyatt sensed it was rhetorical, he answered anyway. “We could hike through the night back toward town?”

“And hope we’re not arrested for vagrancy when we ask for a room,” Lucy finished for him. “Foreigners showing up in torn, mud-streaked clothes won't exactly inspire confidence.”

“And that's only if we're not shot on our way there,” Wyatt said.

“Or, let me guess, eaten by something.” Rufus rolled his eyes. “I'll fetch kindling.” 

“I’ll come with you,” Lucy said, only to get stopped by Wyatt. “Yeah?”

“You don't think we actually have to worry about being bear food, do you?”

“With the caveat that historical ecology is not my field,” Lucy began in her best professerial tone, “bears aren’t likely. Wolves are a possibility, though.” Wyatt caught her grinning as she hiked her skirt and rushed to catch up with Rufus.

“That's not funny, Lucy!”

“The past rarely is,” she called over her shoulder.

Wyatt shook his head, as he got to work searching for an acceptable place to make camp further away from the water.

They’d each taken turns carefully averting their eyes as the others stripped down and scrubbed off as much mud as they could, and then they all sat to dry by the fire, lamenting the lack of food. None of them were quite desperate enough to resort to playing Bear Grylls and hunting down a squirrel or something. They could get lunch once they got back to town, or better yet the present, tomorrow. The bills in Wyatt’s pockets had thankfully dried out well enough to use if need be.

That didn't mean any of them were happy about it, though Rufus took it the hardest. “A degree from MIT was supposed to guarantee I always had a roof over my head, and a full stomach,” he grumbled as he flopped down next to Lucy.

“Yeah. None of us saw any of this coming either,” Lucy replied, fanning her skirt over the three of them like a blanket. It was a warm night as was typical of late July, but once the sun set, there was still enough of a chill that they had implicitly decided to sleep huddled together. 

Rufus wasn't ready to drop it, it seemed. “Wyatt did. He signed up for this crap. What the hell were you thinking anyway?”

Wyatt propped himself up on his elbows, and glared at Rufus over Lucy. He didn't answer with his deepest fear: that he too had been manipulated into this every bit as much as Rufus and Lucy had, part of Rittenhouse’s grand design in a way he couldn't yet identify. Nor did he give Rufus the truth from his perspective, that he hadn't given it much thought at all, just thrown himself into the mission with all that he had and hoped it would be enough.

Instead a day's worth of frustration bled over, obscuring any rational, more measured response. “Clearly I'm insane. And if that’s the way you feel, I’ll have Agent Christopher assign a new soldier.”

“Whoa.” Rufus’s expression softened. “Wyatt.”

But Wyatt wasn't done. “Just be more careful with this one than Bam Bam.”

“Shit, Wyatt. I'm sorry,” Rufus said, as Lucy hissed Wyatt’s name, digging one of her knees into his hip.

Inching a little out of Lucy’s range, Wyatt apologized too. The brief flash of anger had cooled. “I'm sorry too, Rufus. We’re all on edge, okay?” 

“You’re not really gonna abandon Lucy and I, are you? Because there's a good chance that Agent Christopher would stick us with Flynn full time, and I do not trust him to cover our asses.” Rufus laughed. “Who am I kidding? Lucy’d be fine.”

Lucy groaned. “No one is going anywhere, and all of us are sorry. Now would you both get some sleep so we have some hope at surviving our hike tomorrow and figuring out what Emma's here for?”

“Yes ma’am,” Wyatt saluted her and diligently shut his eyes. “Night Rufus. G’night Lucy.”

After another round of apologies and goodnights that made Wyatt feel like he was starring in the end credits of Waltons, Rufus had managed to settle in and fall asleep, or so his even rhythmic breathing might suggest. Wyatt was awake in a way that had only marginally to do with keeping one ear open for wolf howls or the footfall of Rittenhouse agents who might choose to slit their throats while they slept. 

Wyatt rolled over to stare up at the sky. The night was a brilliant deep blue, cloudless and dotted with so many more stars than Wyatt could have ever seen back home. He inhaled the air, free of two centuries of soot and exhaust and smiled to himself.

Lucy shifted next to him. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Do pennies even exist yet?”

“The first penny was minted in 1793, so no, we're just shy of two decades too early. But somehow, I don't think the history of currency is what's really on your mind.” Even at a whisper, the slightly fond exasperation he would forever associate with Lucy was there.

"No. It was what Rufus said, about choosing to be here. It's not what he's making it to be, I didn't have all the facts."

"Wyatt, I know. Rufus knows that too. He w—"

He interrupted mid-word, "I still would, though."

"Huh?" 

"If we woke up tomorrow back at Mason Industries with Agent Christopher handing me your files, explaining the basics and all that..." He waved vaguely with the hand farthest from Lucy. "I'd do it all over again."

"You would?"

"Yeah. There's a lot I'd hope would go down differently if there was a second chance, obviously."

"Obviously," Lucy said, and while he picked up on the tension in her voice, the words seemed to keep flowing anyway.

"That's not to say that some of this hasn't been terrible, I just...it's also been some of the best days of my life. All the things we've seen, all the people we met...you love history, hasn't some part of this been worth it?"

"No," she answered so firmly that he startled. "Not when it's Amy on the other side of that scale. None of this was worth losing her."

The words hung heavy in the air between them. There wasn't enough room for grief with the two of them basically sharing body heat, so Wyatt levered himself up off the ground. He suppressed a shiver from the combined chill of the night air and the frosty look Lucy was throwing him.

“I didn't mean it like that,” Wyatt said, even though he hoped that was obvious. He toed the ground, thinking through what he needed to say. “When that article ran, the one that faked our deaths, I didn't have to worry about anyone reading it.”

Lucy nodded. He knew she understood.

“So whatever happens I refuse to regret meeting you and Rufus.”

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Manage to be so damn optimistic. It's annoying.”

“Practice, or desperation,” Wyatt admitted with a shrug. “I’ve spent more time in a lot of kinds of hell. The Army encourages it too.”

Relieved that Lucy was no longer looking to bite his head off, Wyatt plunked down next to her again. Rufus stirred, and threw an arm over both of them. Wyatt shifted to do the same, bundling them tighter together. 

“I'm glad it's you, both of you,” Rufus declared. His voice was still groggy, like he’d been gargling sand.

“Me too,” Lucy said.

“No one whose backs I’d rather watch,” Wyatt agreed.

“Yeah, I could have had to fly some pair of complete assholes around,” Rufus added.

All three of them burst out in laughter, and in the wake of it, drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [this Faulkner interview quote](https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4954/the-art-of-fiction-no-12-william-faulkner).
> 
> Thanks to my beta, ashling!


End file.
